Draft Lecture No. 12 --

“A Broad Overview of Western Civilization”

L. Stephen Coles, M.D., Ph.D., Lecturer in Gerontology

UCLA Molecular Biology Institute

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Adjunct Professor of Clinical Neurosciences and the Psychology

of Aging at The Chicago School in Los Angeles

E-mails: scoles@ucla.edu; scoles@grg.org

By selecting a few items from the following 20 pages and dropping them into a social cocktail- party conversation, you might give the impression to those around you that you were especially clever. But remember the problem of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Complete understanding is important, and partial understanding is very risky). The outline for a book below are intended merely as an index for future independent study.

If you read three major national newspapers such as The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, or The Wall Street Journal, as I do, cover-to-cover every day for a week, you will have consumed more information than an average 17^th-Century citizen would have in an entire lifetime! That’s a lot of (digital) data, but it’s nothing compared to what is on the immediate horizon. By comparison, from the beginnings of civilization ~10,000 years ago to the year 2003, all of humankind generated a grand total of 5 EB (Exa Bytes) of digital information. An Exa Byte is one quintillion Bytes or 1,000,000,000 GB (that’s 1 followed by 18 zeros). But from 2003 through 2010, we created 5 EB of digital information every two days. By next year (2013), we will be producing 5 EB every 10 minutes. How much information is this? The 2010 total of 912 EB is the equivalent of 18x the amount of information contained in all the books ever written [on paper, parchment, or stone tablets]. This means that the world is not just changing quantitatively, it’s changing qualitatively. The change is not just accelerating -- the rate of the acceleration of change is itself accelerating! [1]

Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think (2012).

If Moore’s Law holds true for the next 20 years, as I expect it will (the cost of computing comes down systematically as the density of electronic circuits increases exponentially every 18 months) then the cost of a CPU chip with sensor(s) and telemetry circuits will cost less than US$1.00. That means that every single car, appliance, piece of furniture, and even clothing/shoes in your home will be “intelligent” (connected to the cloud [Internet] with a fully recorded life history of everything that has ever happened to it since it was manufactured in a factory), as it will be cheap enough and trivial to do so. The implications of this new world with an audit trail of everything that happens and ubiquitous personal home robots everywhere will be hard to comprehend. But let’s try.

I. Nine Cultural Revolutions in the Self-Image of Human Beings

Over the past 2,500 years, eight revolutions in our self-image have helped us mature or evolve from troglodytes into rational, literate human beings. Because the Mayan Calender stopped abruptly in the year 2012, this led some to believe that this year should be considered the predicted end-of-the-world (the apocalypse). Many still suffer from “magical thinking.” One can distinguish at least seven major revolutions in man’s self image over the last three thousand years.

1. The Aristotelean Revolution

The world is a very large spheroid, not, according to an ancient Hindu Myth, a flat plate held up by four elephants and/or turtle(s):

2. The Copernican Revolution (Nicholas Copernicus; a Heliocentric Model; not a Ptolmeic Model)

The Earth spins on its own axis and revolves around the Sun (along with other planets). Galileo helped to prove this empirically with his invention of the telescope.

3. The Newtonian Revolution

Sir Isaac Newton of Cambridge/London: Calculus, Light/Optics, and Laws of Motion.

4. The Darwinian Revolution (Charles Darwin)

All animals and plants, including humans, descend from a common ancestor by means of a simple evolutionary mechanism called “natural selection” or “survival of the fittest.”

5. The Pasteur Revolution (Louis Pasteur, Koch, and Jenner)

The Germ Theory of Disease. Bugs cause infection, not sin, as the church would have us believe. Disease-causing pathogens are microbes (viruses, bacteria, fungi, rickettsia, helminthes, and other parasites).

6. The Freudian Revolution (Sigmund Freud/Carl Jung)

The human mind is not fully rational, but subject to unconscious [even mutually antagonistic] drives. Three parts: (1) Id [Hunger, Thirst, Libido]; (2) Ego [will to power]; (3) Superego [accountability; responsibility for right/wrong behavior; sin/guilty conscience).

7. The Simonian Revolution (Herbert Simon and Allen Newell of Carnegie-Mellon University)(1965)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) may someday be achieved by simulating human problem-solving processes on a computer (Expert Systems) (Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy: The jury is still out; Chess [IBM’s “Deep Blue”] doesn’t support this hypothesis; neither does “Watson” an IBM computer in the TV game show Jeopardy)(Robots: Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics and the problem of a disembodied intelligence [The Imitation Game and {Turing Test}; The Krell in Forbidden Planet]).

8. The Watsonian Revolution (James Watson of Watson and Crick)(2000)

With the sequencing of the human genome, we can now start to read the “Book of Life” (Francis Collins, Craig Venter, Eric Lander, and Leroy Hood). Synthetic Biology will be the major application of this knowledge that will someday lead to a cure for all chronic diseases, possibly through stem-cell therapy.

9. The Hawking Revolution (Stephen Hawking and the Multiverse)(2010)

There are many parallel universes constantly being spawning with their own Big Bangs; most do not support galaxies or light given the variable amounts of dark energy in empty space. See Brian Greene on The Fabric of eh Cosmos

II. 50 Key Events in the History of Human Civilization

A. The Stone Age

1. Death. The discovery that aging occurs relentlessly for all members of one’s tribe (and, by extension, the frightening contemplation of one's own demise). As a corollary, this incomprehensible prospect leads to the invention of religion [immortal god(s) who “made it so” that we shall perish, while they themselves don’t die; and furthermore, they didn’t bother to ask for our consent, except for providing us with a Prime Directive to “Go forth and multiply.”]. Respectful funeral ceremonies for burying the dead with things they cared about in life are established (otherwise, corpses begin to smell like putrid meat). Cannibalism is generally rejected as a survival strategy.
2. The ability to distinguish individuals of the same kind from another tribe who are friends and not foes. As a corollary, trading for food and trinkets is recognized as an acceptable survival strategy. Knowledge of the location of water becomes valuable during times of drought.
3. The invention of complex spoken language, to include "story telling" and a variety of Genesis myths to teach children who we are and where we came from.
4. The creation of tools (clubs, knives, axes, sharp throwing spears, walking sticks).
5. The discovery of fire and how to control it and use it for (1) heat [to keep warm in winter; (2) light to see in a dark cave [torches]; and (3) the cooking of raw meat [to increase the efficiency of protein absorption. As a corollary, a gender-specific division of labor between males (hunters) and females (gatherers/cooks) increases the survival-prospects of the tribe. Distinguishing edible plants/nuts vs. poisonous plants {mushrooms} and medicinal herbs become important for women.
6. The invention of clothing sewn from hides using needle-and-thread to keep warm in winter and shoes to facilitate walking for long distances.
7. The discovery of a cause-and-effect relationship between fornication (sexual intercourse) and procreation (birth of a baby) [intercourse and birth are separated in time by approximately nine months]. As a corollary, the concept of a monogamous/polygamous family is established within the tribe with words for mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew [and by extension words for husband, wife, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, ancestor, etc.] are incorporated into the native language. The notion of primogenitor is fashioned -- inheritance by the fist-born son of a married couple. The creation of professions: tribal elders/leaders, lawyers/judges (to resolve disputes), witch doctors, priests, midwives, fortune-tellers, soldiers/warriors.
8. The creation of music and instruments to play it; composers and musicians to play it.
9. The creation of jewelry (necklaces, bracelets, and rings), hair combs, cave ornaments, and decorative cosmetics (lipstick and face paint). (barbers, hair stylists); Pottery
10. The creation of cave drawings (art) as a way to teach group-hunting to children as a survival strategy.
11. Canine breeding [wolves are domesticated and become dogs after ~10 generations; they are further specialized as hunting dogs (blood hounds and sight hounds) and low-maintenance security dogs (barking to wake you up in the event of danger, so you can sleep soundly without fear of being eaten by a predator during the night.]
12. Animal husbandry (chickens, ducks, pigs, cattle/oxen, cows [for milk], sheep [for wool], goats, horses, llamas, camels) and, as a corollary, dogs are bred for herding.

B. The Bronze Age

13. Agriculture (Irrigation) (baking bread) and by extension, solar observatories to know when to plant seed and when to harvest. Plow
14. Domestication of cats (they prevent stored grain from being eaten by vermin)
15. Metallurgy: Towns and Villages built (digging water wells and pumps, aqueducts.

16. Windmills to grind grain to wheat.

C. The Iron Age

17. Blacksmiths to make iron horseshoes, hammers, hatchets, and metal swords/sabers/shields, saddles with stirrups.
18. The wheel, and as a corollary, flat roads; wheel barrows, chariots, carriages, wagons (first civil engineering)
19.Architecture: Construction of cities (urban planning) with thousands of people and civic monuments/statues/sculpture with massive temples to the gods (clergy are needed for maintenance).

20. Money (coins, and by extension counterfeiting; government tax collectors; precious metals [gold and silver], salt and spices).
21. Writing (literacy, scribes, ink, papyrus, chiseling of stone tablets, head stones in a cemetery, an arithmetical number system for counting and settling debts); libraries of scrolls and illuminated manuscripts in monasteries à bound books; the printing press and movable type.
22. Maps (the Aztecs and Mayans didn't invent them [sigh]).
23. Mathematics (geometry; trigonometry; algebra; the digit zero as a place holder).
24. Bow and arrow; reflex bow, crossbow.
25. Dugouts, rafts, canoes, sailboats, multi-mast ships.
26. Alchemy --> Periodic Table of the Elements.

27. Gun Powder; canons, rifles, pistols, revolvers, machine guns.

28. Glass blowing, optics: spectacles, bifocals, telescopes, microscopes

D. The Industrial Revolution

29. Steam engine (James Watt)
30. Railroad locomotive (steam --> diesel)
31. Radio (Ham Radio --> AM/FM --> CB Radio --> Satellite Radio)(Marconi)
32. Medicine: Anesthesia, Surgery, C-sections, Germ Theory of Disease, antibiotics, vaccines
33. Electrification of cities: Power Distribution by DC --> AC (Tesla, Westinghouse)
34. Light bulb (Thomas Edison --> tungsten filament)
35. Telegraph (Morse) Telegrams, Teletype machines
36. Telephone (Alexander Graham Bell) Cell Phone --> Smart Phone (six billion people have accounts out of nine billion people on Earth)
37. Phonograph (wax cylinder --> 78 rpm --> LP --> 33-1/3 rpm --> 45 rpm --> 8-track tape --> cassette tape --> Music CD --> digital download to iPod
38. Movies (Silent, B&W Talkies, Color, 3-D Imax)
39. Steam ships (Fulton); Nuclear Submarines (Rickover)
40. Automobile (Ford Models A,T gasoline-powered internal combustion engine with 8 cylinders --> Google Automated Driving on freeways using GPS; Nevada will require red license plates for robotically-enabled cars)
41. Airplanes (Wright Brothers à Boeing 747 à Concord).
42. Atomic Bombs; Hydrogen bombs; nuclear power
43. Rockets (USSR Sputnik; US [NASA] Moon Landing; JPL Missions to the outer planets)
44. Satellites (GPS [resolution = 1 meter; 1 microsecond response]; Hubble Space Telescope --> Webb Telescope)
45. TV (B&W; Color; flat-screen).
46. Video Recording (Beta Max, VHS, DVD, BlueRay).

Ref.: Andrew Shyrock and Daniel Lord Smail, Deep History: The Architecture of Past and Present (360 pages; University of California Press; November 2011).

E. The Digital Information Age

47. Computers (IBM Mainframes, Cray Supercomputers, Time Sharing, Computer Graphics; PC’s (Windows OS, Office Applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Mac’s, Cordless Mouse, BlueTooth) John von Neuman (Johnniac at RAND Corp.) stored program SW, Alan Turing and the Turing Machine (Turing Test = “Imitation Game”)

48. Digital Biology (Watson and Crick DNA) DIYBio Synthesis

49.Internet: Douglas Engelbart, (“Augmenting Human Intellect”), J. C. R. Licklider, Ivan Sutherland, Lawrence Roberts, The ARPA Net. Vint Cerf, The world wide web (www), browsers (Netscape, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome) Hypertext markup language (html), XML, Search Engines (Yahoo, Google; {Encyclopedia Britannica --> Microsoft Encarta on CD-ROM --> Wikipedia}), Social Media {Twitter, MySpace, Facebook},
50. Artificial Intelligence (Deep Blue on Chess, Watson on Jeopardy à Watson for each person; Industrial Robots à Personal Household Robots [General Factotum]). Automatic simultaneous translation of foreign languages to and from English. Soon, teleprompters will no longer needed, as all text will be displayed in real time on your contact lenses. At a medical workstation in your bathroom, an AI Med System will analyze samples of your breath and bodily fluids {blood, tears, sweat, saliva, urine, and feces} along with your vital signs {temp, RR, Pulse, BP, EKG} in real time and provide you with immediate feedback on any significant change in your health status.

F. Thirty Years in the Future

51. The Singularity (Ray Kurzweil based on Moore’s Law)
52. Biological Immortality

G. The Systematic North-Western Trajectory of Modern Civilization {excluding China}

1. Central Africa (200 KYA) (Abstract Language; Stone-Age Tools)
2. Thebes (Egyptian Nile River Valley with Pyramids/Sphinx) (2000 BCE) (Seti, Rameses the Great)
3.Athens (300 BCE) (Socrates, Plato, Thucyddies, Herodotus, Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristophenes, Homer, Pythagorus, Euclid, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Alexander the Great)
4. Alexandria (30 BCE) (Babylon, Persia) (Cleopatra, Julius Caesar)
5. Constantinople (1 AD) (Turkey/Arabia)(Galen)
6. Rome (300 AD)(Emperor Augustine)
7. Florence (1400 AD)(Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Ghiberiti, Botticelli, Donatellie, Galileo)
8. Venice (1500 AD) (Dodge)
9. Madrid (1600 AD) (Queen Isabella [1451 - 1504])
10. Paris (1700 AD) (Emperor Napoleon [1769-1821]; Louis Pasteur [1822-1895])
11. London (1800 AD) (Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin)

12. New York City (1900 AD) (Bos/Wash: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami)
13. Los Angeles (2000 AD) (San/San: San Diego, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, San Jose, San Francisco, Berkeley, Davis, Sacramento)

14. The Internet/Cloud (2100 AD) (Civilization is no longer focused at a single geographical location)

III. Memory

Five different types of memory serve to enhance our species’ evolutionary progress (Richard Dawkins; Oxford University)

1. DNA; our human genome (3.1 Giga Base Pairs; ~25 K genes)(speciation took place 200 KYA [thousand years ago] with mutations for a large brain [Broca’s Area and Wernike’s Areas] and an adipose thumb that gave rise to language and tool using, respectively [fire for warmth and cooking of meat, clothing]. Weapons for hunting in ancestral hunter/gatherer stage.

2. Epigenetics (scattered methyl groups on DNA and acetyl groups on histones, which are influenced by the environment, determine gene expression)(identical twins reared apart have greater phenotypic divergence over time more than identical [congenic] twins reared together)

3. The human Immune System (the ability to distinguish self from non-self at the tissue level)

4. The human Brain (neural pathways and synapses for short-term and long-term memory)

5. Culture (Oral and Written Recorded History) ~8,000 years ago; agriculture/animal husbandry

(Egyptian Hieroglyphics and the Rosetta Stone [in three different languages])

IV. Five Branches of Philosophy

Philosophy seeks to answer at least three fundamental questions. In plain English, they are…

1. Who am I?

2. Where am I?

b. Teleology (Theory of Intentionality, Purposeful Actions, Free-Will vs. Fate [Karma])

Autonomy (Independent Agency, cosmogonyWill, Drive = Conation)

c. Cosmology (Theory of Creation [Cosmogony]; The Big Bang Theory with continuing expansion accelerating due to dark energy/dark matter)

d. Existentialism (Absurdity of reality and Despair)(Satre, Camus, Heidegger, Kierkegaard)

2. Epistemology (Theory of knowledge)

“When a tree falls in the forest and there’s nobody around to hear it, did it make a sound?”

What constitutes evidence for an uncertain hypothesis or cause and effect?

Qualia (Intrinsic properties [mass, momentum, shape] vs. epiphenomena [like color, texture, warmth which are in the eyes of the beholder {perceiver}])

3. Ethics (Theory of Right and Wrong)

a. Deontology (Duty, Altruism, Philanthropy): The ends do not justify the means (Behavior Optimality with all actions being subject to ethical constraints) (deception/mendacity/prevarication);

b. The Ten Commandments (Old Testament)

c. The Golden Rule [Jesus]: Do unto others have you would have them do unto you;

d. Negative Golden Rule [Confucius]: Do not do unto others that which you believe they do not wish to have done unto them;

e. Four Cardinal Virtues [Greek]:(1) Justice; (2) Wisdom (Prudence); (3) Courage; and (4) Beauty;

Justice is “the having and doing of that which is one’s own.” – Plato’s Republic

f. Sin (Cardinal vs. Venal)(Felony vs. Misdemeanor)/Guilt/Confession/Repentance

f. Definition of Happiness and the Good Life

(1) In your choice of a profession, strive for excellence (e.g., become a cook who prepares delectable dishes)

(2) Hedonism (maximize pleasure, luxury, sybarites)(e.g., Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Philosophy)

(3) Epicureanism (collector of fine art)

4. Aesthetics (Theory of Beauty; Art [paintings, sculpture, music, literature (prose {short stories, novels}/poetry {lyrical/rhyming, narrative/non-rhyming, figures of speech: alliteration, metaphor, simile, tone color, onomatopoeia}, theater: opera, plays])

5. Logic

a. Inductive Logic

(The Laplace Sunrise Problem)

b. Deductive Logic (Dialectics)

(1) Symbolic Logic (Propositional Calculus; truth tables)

(a) Tautology (proposition is always true)

(b) Contradiction (proposition is never true)

(2) First-Order Predicate Calculus (Existential and Universal Quantification)

Example: Syllogisms

All men are mortal.

Socrates is a man.

Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

(3) Modal Logic (it is possible that... rhombus or vertical-diamond operator)

(4) The Situation Calculus (time embedded in “s”)

(5) Mathematical Logic (Russell Paradox; Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem; Post Correspondence Theorem)

(6) Logical Positivism -- The Vienna Circle (Alfred J. Ayer; Ludwig Wittgenstein)

c. Rhetoric

The art of persuasion; argumentation; sophistry, dialectics

Table of Classical Fallacies (Examples:

(1) “Begging the Question” demonstrates a conclusion by means of premises that assume that conclusion.

Example:

Argument: Billy always tells the truth, I know this because he told me so.

Problem: Billy may be lying.

(Also called Petitio Principii);

(2) Argumentum ad hominum,

(3) Non sequitur: incorrectly assumes one thing is the cause of another.

Example

Argument: I hear the rain falling outside my window; therefore, the sun is not shining.

Problem: The conclusion is false because the sun can shine while it is raining.

(4) Special Cases: post hoc ergo propter hoc: believing that temporal succession implies a causality.

Example:

Argument: After Billy was vaccinated he developed autism; therefore, the vaccine caused his autism.

Problem: This does not provide any evidence that the vaccine was the cause. The characteristics of autism may generally become noticeable at the age just following the typical age children receive vaccinations.

Sophistry; marketing/advertising (manipulating the gullible into making you rich while you sleep “... 1-800- ... Call Now!”)

d. Magical Thinking and Superstitions

As Sir Arthur Clarke, who died in March of 2009, has said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Our use of reason has served to safeguard us against religious fundamentalists and charlatans (mountbanks) who would profit from concealing the truth. Yet today, we have an epidemic of irrational thought running rampant in our society (new-age mystics, astrologers (zodiac, horoscopy, “What’s your sign”), Tarot-card readers, palmists (chiromancy), graphologists, crystal balls readers, people who will read your aura or tea leaves, speak-in-tongues, [glossolalia], and what have you). I assert that irrational thought is not harmless: alchemy, phrenology, Ouija Boards, claims of UFO abductions by aliens in the night, crop circles, dowsing, the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot (Sasquatch), Abominable Snowman (Yeti) [cryptozoology, chimera/theriantropism {Anubis, centaur, griffin, minotary, satyre, dagon, epimetheus, sphinx, pegasus, phoenix, basilisk cockatrice, unicorn, gorgon, hydra, cerabus, harpy, moloch, hippogriff, dipsas, bucentaur, pan, lamia, devil (Lucifer, Beelzebub, Satan), incubus, succubus, siren, mermaid, triton, Cyclops, ogre}], ghosts, witches, warlocks, goblins, elves, gnomes, sprites, dwarfs, Leprechaun, sylph, cherub, angel, archangel, Tinker Bell, Thumbelina, Vampires (Vlad the Impaler, Count Dracula [garlic, crosses, mirrors, wooden stakes] bats), Were Wolves/Were Tigers [full moon, silver bullets], Frankenstein (Dr. Victor? or Dr. Henry?), mummies [nine tana leaves], ghouls, zombies, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and Santa Clause, can be relatively harmless, but dangers occur when we teach Creationism to school children as part of the academic curriculum, flock to witch doctors or spiritualists to heal our loved ones, Voodoo (Haiti), Santeria (animal sacrifice), Macumba (Brazil), use homeopathy or moxibustion, call on psychic surgeons [Indonesia], employ a professional medium in a séance to communicate with the dearly departed (our late relatives), perform ritual sacrifices of virginal maidens (the Aztecs in Mexico), burn heretics at the stake [the Spanish Inquisition], interrogate military prisoners using "extreme rendition" employing forms of torture like "water boarding," it can profoundly undermine the ethical basis for Western Civilization. Unsound beliefs in pseudoscience like Telepathy (mind reading), Precognition (forecasting the future), Clairvoyance (Extra Sensory Perception [ESP]), Psychokinesis (bending spoons or stopping/starting clocks without touching them), or other forms of parapsychological intervention [J. B. Rhine of Duke University], such as remote group prayer for infertile women to get pregnant at a higher rate than normal all lead down a blind alley.

_________________________________________________________________

Here are five of the most well-known discredited substances in history [1]:

1. Phlogiston -- In 1667, German alchemist Johann Joachim Becher identified Phlogiston as the

essence of fire. It was ostensibly contained within all combustible substances.

2. Miasma -- The Greeks were convinced that Malaria was spread by bad air. Medieval Europe burned incense to prevent the spread of this disease.

3. Orgone -- In the 1940's, psychologist Wilheim Reich posited that Orgone composed the sexual energy could be collected for medicinal purposes.

4. Ether -- Descartes asserted that light and gravity traveled through Luminiferous Ether that was more subtle than air as a transparent medium necessary for the propagation of light.

5. Alkahest -- In the 16th century Swiss alchemist Paracelsus discovered Alkahest, the "universal solvent," the active ingredient in the "Philosopher's Stone." (See Harry Potter)

Ref.: 1. Jeremy and Claire Weiss, "Best Discredited Substances," Wired Magazine, Vol. 19, No. 12, p. 44 (December 2011).

______________________________________________________

e. Mathematics (Axiomatic Pure vs. Applied Mathematics)

(1) Euclidean Geometry/Spherical Non-Euclidian Geometry/Topology/Trigonometry

(2) Calculus (differential, integral, [partial] Differential Equations [linear/non-linear], Measure Theory [based on integration by distributions rather than simple variables])

(3) Algebra (matrix algebra, set theory, group theory, ring theory, field theory, homology theory)

(4) Probability Theory (Markov Chains; Stochastic Processes)

a. Mathematical Statistics

b. Gaussian Distribution (Bell-Shaped Curve or Normal Distribution; mean [mu], standard deviation [sigma], variance [sigma squared])

c. Game Theory (Two-person vs. n-person zero-sum games; Broward’s Fixed Point Theorem in topology)

(5) Cryptography (coding and code-breaking, steganography)

(6) Graph Theory (Nodes and Arcs; Critical Path Analysis; PERT [Program Evaluation and Review Technique])

(7) Occam’s Razor - When alternative explanations or models of the world have equal power of explanation or prediction, choose the simpler one.

V. Theology

Comparative Religion:

Piety (Those certain that God(s) is/are known to exist)

A. Polytheists: Pagans (Stonehenge), Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Norse, American Indian, Mayan, Aztecs, Incas

B. Monotheists: {God, Lord, Supreme Being, Mysterium Tremendum, Elijah, Immanuel}, {omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient}]) Zoroastrianism (Ormazd [also Ormuzd]), Hinduism, Buddhism {Zen; Reincarnation; Tibetan {Dalai Lama []; Compassion}; Temple), Confucianism, Abrahamic Religions: (a) Judaism (Yahweh, Jehovah,* Rabbi, Synagogue; Old Testament)[orthodox and reform; Kosher Slaughter, Incest], (b) Islam (Muslim, Mohammedanism; Shiites, Sunnis Sharia Law)(Allah, Imam, Ayatollah, Mosque; Koran) (c) Christianity (Roman Catholics/Greek-/Russian-Orthodox with separate Popes in Constantinople/ Istanbul/Moscow {Pope, Cardinal, Bishop, Priest {Nun, Monk}, Deacon, Laity} Church, Cathedral, Vatican {Holy See}; [Orders: Franciscans Chastity, Poverty, and Obedience}, Dominicans, Jesuits], Trinity {Father, Son, and Holy Ghost}; New Testament; Saints; (d) Protestantism (Minister, Vicar){Lutheran, Calvinist, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, Anglican, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormon Church of Latter Day Saints (Joseph Smith and Brigham Young; 1830), Fundamentalist Mormon Church (Warren Jeffs founded a modern polygamous cult), Christian Scientist (Church of Christ Scientist founded by Mary Baker Eddy in 1879 [The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper now on the Internet]), Quakers {Friends}, Amish [beards are sacred]}[Evangelical Churches {Pentacostal [Assembly of God]/speaking in tongues}{Book of Revelation}, Rastafarian Church, The Church of Scientology (L. Ron Hubbard, 1954), Unitarian Universalism (Europe, 1556), Ethical Culture Society (Founded by Felix Adler in New York, 1877), Theosophical Society (1808); Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) Yogi Paramahansa Yogamande (1920) with HQ on Mount Washington above Pasadena or Glendale, CA; Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Transcendental Meditation (1955)); Hare Krishna (1966); New Birth Missionary Church; Raelians (located in 80 countries claiming over 100,000 members). ***

____________________

*** The Raëlian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, whom they call the Elohim. Mon. Claude Vorilhon, a former French journalist, is their spiritual leader, whom they call Rael. They are headquartered in Montreal, Canada and are very interested in human cloning. They are primarily interested in maximizing their parishioner’s pleasure per unit of time.

_________________________________

Given the uncertainty in the historical record (and contradictory New Testament accounts), scholars now believe that Jesus of Nazareth was not actually born on December 25^th of the year 0 AD (Anno Domini), but sometime earlier between March and June in one of the years between 6, 5, or 4 BCE (Before the Common Era). In pagan traditions predating Christianity, the Winter Solstice was a very important time for celebration -- in the hopes that the days would again get longer (in the Northern Hemisphere) and the warmth of Spring would ultimately return. Thus, many gods and goddesses were presumed to have been born on or around this time. For example, the following births occurred in December (Julian Calendar): The Egyptian God Horus, Mithras (the Unconquered Sun of Persia), Amaterasu (The Japanese Goddess of the Sun), Rhea (who gave birth to Saturn, son of the Father of Time), Quetzalcoatl and Lucina ("Little Light"), Lucia (Saint or Goddess of Light, who is honored from Italy to Sweden, crowned with candles to carry us through the darkness), Sarasvati, the Hindu Goddess of Knowledge and the Queen of Heaven. Do you see a pattern here? It would have been trivial to establish the birth of Jesus as December 25^th in the absence of an official birth certificate and thereby obviate the need for more than one celebration at Yule-Tide among Christian practitioners.

C. Agnostics (Unsure of the existence of God; He/he may or may not exist, but I need to hedge my bets on the grounds that there is insufficient evidence.);

D. Atheists (Sure that God doesn’t exist) [modern atheists include, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens {recently died of throat cancer, but didn’t change his position at the last moment}The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.]

Ref.: * His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York; Dec. 6, 2011; 208 pages, $16.32 on Amazon.com). {Secular ethics means that you don’t need religion to lead a happy and ethical life. But the difference between ethics and religion is like the difference between tea and water. You clearly need water to live, but if you have an ethics grounded in religion, it is more like tea, which includes water, aromatic tea leaves, spices, sugar, and, in Tibet, a pinch of salt. Prayer, although important, cannot match the achievements of modern science, including physics, cosmology, biology, psychology, and neuroscience. At the genome level, the differences between different races is less significant than the difference between different individuals, so all humans are as one regardless of race. Buddhism has a history of adapting to changing times and cultures and today, a new American hybrid of Buddhism is blossoming.}

There are many Creation Myths (Genesis)/Flood (rainbow)/Babel (language)/Messiah (Christ/Immaculate Conception/Miracles {Lazarus}/Transformation of Bread and Wine recapitulated during Holy Communion/Resurrection)(Baptism: Limbo/Purgatory/ Salvation/Heaven/{Hell}) (See Joseph Campbell’s various Comparative Mythology books);

3. Thanatology (Eschatology or “last rights”)(Recognition of mortality => sacrifices, ceremonial funerals, autopsy)

Primogeniture [inheritance by first-born {legitimate} sons])

Methods for disposing of human remains (corpses) throughout history…

Do nothing (side effect: bacterial decomposition with subsequent foul odor);
Allow the body to be eaten by vultures, jackals, or other carrion scavengers;
Mummify (remove internal organs, including the brain through the nose, and wrap the body with spices and gauze);
Cremation (burn the corpse on a funerary pyre with two coins covering the eyes to pay the boatman, as you seek to cross the River Styx);
Bury in a coffin in a grave six-feet-under with a head-stone marker in a cemetery (reserved real estate by consensus) or in a mausoleum [sarcophagus/crypt/inscribed stone ossuary box to hold bones of the deceased] above ground or in a cave [catacombs]; bury at sea. Morticians/undertakers perform miraculous improvements in the appearance of the decedent with cosmetics even after an autopsy; they use formalin (formaldehyde) as an embalming fluid to preserve the body for an open-casket funeral service that may require a week or more to schedule, so the remains will be well preserved;
Donate the body to science for dissection by medical students in a course in human anatomy (In Europe, dissection was once declared illegal, an invasion of a sacred body);
Donate/sell body parts to private companies (surgeons in training);
Plasticize (Gunther von Hagens, M.D., German Pathologist with a traveling show);
Cryonic suspension (in liquid nitrogen) [Alcor, Inc. of Scottsdale, AZ].

4. Pantheism vs. Montheism: Deism (passive God, creator), Theism (an active God who answers prayers and performs miracles)

5. Theodicy (The Problem of Evil)(Book of Job)

6. Apostasy (conversion to another religion) – in Islam, apostasy is punishable by death (stoning).

7. Quasi-Religious Fraternal Organizations/Civic Groups:

1. Knight’s of the Round Table moved to Malta

2. Masons (Lodges)

3. Knights of Columbus

4. Kiwanas Clubs

5. Rotary Clubs International

6. Lion’s Clubs

7. Optimists Clubs

(Real estate agents typically network for lunch once a week.)

VI. Science

1. Physics

a. Four Forces: (i) Gravity; (ii) Electro/Magnetism; (iii) Weak Force; and (iv) Strong Force

b. Kinetic Energy/Potential Energy

c. Thermodynamics

(i) First Law (Enthalpy)

(ii) Second Law (Entropy)(entropy always increases in a closed system)(Information Theory)

c. Astronomy (Dark Matter/Dark Energy/Hyperinflation)(Drake Equation)

d. Particle Physics (Quarks) String Theory/”Brane” Theory

2. Chemistry

a. Alchemy

b. Inorganic Chemistry (Periodic Table of the Elements)

c. Organic (Carbon) Chemistry {Created by German Scientists}

3. Biology

Three components of the Definition of Life:

(i) Autosynthesis (reproduction)

(ii) Autocatalysis (metabolism)

(iii) Tropisms (phototropism, geotropism, hydrotropism, electrotopism)

Prokaryotes [naked DNA] vs. Eukaryotes [nucleus with chromosomal DNA plus cytoplasmic mitochondria with mtDNA])(The Watson and Crick (Linear) Central Dogma

DNAà mRNA à protein (structural and enzymatic);

feedback loops and gene expression control; message splicing, post translational modification)

(1) Botany (plants)

(2) Zoology (animals)

(3) Parasitology (Viruses, Bacteria, Yeast, Fungi, Rickettsia, nematode worms, etc.)

(3) Evolutionary Biology

(4) Systems Biology (cluster genes into vast networks)

Preformation Theory – Regression of homunculus(es) over “n” generations from Adam and Eve up to the present day

4. Computer Science

(a) Algorithms (a step-by-step procedure guaranteed to terminate in a finite number of steps) (Turing Machines – Busy Beaver/Halting Problems)

(b) Heuristics (Rule of Thumb; Guideline, not guaranteed to produce a result)

(i) Means/Ends Analysis [difference reduction; Monkey and Bananas Problem]

(ii) Hill Climbing

(iii) Trouble Shooting [a partition into a set of mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive subproblems; non-linear problems cannot be partitioned; you push-down here and it pops-up there; Divide and Conquer; trouble shooting; puzzle solving; e.g. turn on switch but light bulb doesn’t light: Is the bulb burned out?, the wire unpluged?, the lamp broken?, No power in the wall outlet?]

(iv) Avoid premature closure on a single hypothesis without definitively ruling out alternatives or you may go down a garden path.

5. Linguistics

a. Field Linguistics

b. Computational Linguistics (models of a natural language)(The Imitation Game – Turing Test)

Semiotics (Five components of a linguistic description)(Charles Peirce)

(1) Phonology (phonemes phonetics)

(2) Morphology (inflections “ing” = present participle; “ly” = adverb; “ment” in French; exceptions “vitement” doesn’t exist as a word in French. Why not?)

(3) Syntax

(a) Core Grammar (nouns, verbs, prepositions, etc.

Baccus Naur Form (BNF)

(b) Transformational Grammar -- Noam Chomsky)[active voice/passive voice; interrogative; imperative]

(4) Semantics (meaning; Dictionary: denotation/connotation; Thesaurus: Synonyms, Antonyms, Homonyms)

(5) Pragmatics (use of language in context of the real world; “Tact” vs. “Mand” “It is hot in here.” = “Open the window!”)

6. Psychology

a. Cognitive

b. Clinical (Diagnosis, Prognosis, Therapy, Endpoints)

VII. Professions

1. Medicine

2. Law

3. Engineering: (a) Electrical; (b) Mechanical; (c) Chemical; and (d) Civil

4. Architecture

5. Clergy (Seminary)

6. Military Science (soldiers, sailors, Academies for Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Cyber Warfare, Outer space)

7. Economics

9. Political Science

10. Business/Commerce/Marketing

VIII. Communicating Our Legacy to Future Generations

A. Categories of Knowledge:

1. Books and Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, Radio, TV, Movies on film, tape, or DVD’s, Music CD’s, Internet Blogs)

2. Proprietary Product Brochures and Specification Catalogs published by commercial companies

3. Patents (www.pto.gov) (intellectual property); Requirements:

a. Original (novelty)

b. Non-obvious (non-trivial extension to existing state-of-the-art)

c. Potentially Reducible to Practice

4. Classified information (Confidential, Secret, Top Secret, TS/SI/TK, Q-clearance, Unique Compartmented Data with a “Need to Know”; Not everyone signs the register!) There was nearly a military coup within the Pakistani government following the violation of sovereignty in connection with the assassination of Osama Ben Laden and the unmanned drone strikes targeting militants in the unchartered tribal territories).

B. New Knowledge is Growing Exponentially

1. Scientific Medical Literature in Peer-Reviewed Journals

2. Moore’s Law of Computer Chip Density

3. “The Singularity” (Ray Kurzweil) (Date = ~2038)

C. Worry in a Straight Line:

1. Identify what we already know [Google; Wikipedia; Old Encyclopedias {Britannica, Encarta}, Dictionaries (OED, Webster), Atlases, Thesaurus, CIA World Fact Book, Almanac, Book of World Records] and how to exploit it (it is known, it’s just that you personally don’t know it)

2. Estimate what we need to know that we don’t know yet (Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld explained to us that there are “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns”)

Of the former, figure out

(a) What is unknowable, in principle (and hopefully ignore it)

(b) What is, in fact, knowable; but in what period of time and at what cost (affordability)?

(c) Create a strategy, a plan, and a budget for learning the needed knowledge subject to the specified time and financial constraints.